Michael Seasons
School of Planning, University of Waterloo
Today’s PLAN 675 meeting delved further into the realities of academic publishing. Markus Moos began the class by showing some of the comments he has received from journal reviewers, hammering home the point that criticism is very much a functional aspect of publishing – and the importance of not taking things personally.
One must have a thick skin in this business.
Robert Shipley speaks on the publishing process.
The latter half of the class meeting coincided with a School of Planning Brown Bag Lunch session wherein Robert Shipley, North American editor for Planning Research and Practice, imparted valuable knowledge from the perspective of an editor. Shipley noted that as much as the nature of academic publishing centres on a meritocratic system, it is important for scholars to be smart about where and when to publish. Furthermore, audience matters: conscious thought was given in discussion as to how to maximize the impact of scholarly work dependent on the target audience – whether that be other academics, policy-makers, or practitioners.
